Everything happening Freestyle...

Not even 30 and Quantic aka Will Holland has already released 12 LPs on Tru Thoughts and dozens of singles not to mention many remixes and collaborations. Starting in Brighton, England making sampled based dance music, he's slowly been making his way to a full band setup, adding more instrumentation and variety of styles to his productions.

He's recently relocated to Cali, Colombia, the home of Colombian Salsa music (its also a great City...I had the pleasure of living there for 5 months, a couple of years ago), and has formed a band with South American artists called the Combo Bárbaro.

The stellar array of musicians at the core of the Combo Bárbaro are: pianist Alfredo Linares; Freddy Colorado, the energetic, charismatic cornerstone of the Cali music circuit, on congas; Fernando Silva on baby bass; William Holland himself on electric guitar; and London-based drummer and long time Quantic collaborator Malcolm Catto, also well known for his own band The Heliocentrics, in fine form.

The singing talent, Nidia Gongora, is from a small village hidden in the jungles of west Colombia alongside a major tributary of the Amazon (the video is filmed there). Several hundred communities like these exist on and near the Pacific coast, created when African slaves escaped their captors, they found protection in the wilds of the jungles. Although recent migration to the large cities has taken place, traditional customs, dress and music still features strongly in the daily lives of 'los Pacificos'.

Their new album "Tradition in Transition" is out on Tru-Thoughts now, buy it at the Etch Shop